Productive Food Day and Flourless Oatmeal Cookies

Happy Monday evening!  Made it through another Monday

Today wasn’t too exciting (although it should be tonight — all new Bachelorette and Emily gets feisty!), but yesterday was, so today’s post will be dedicated to Sunday.

First, our morning started with a 5k run.  We wanted to run longer, but we dawdled around a little too long, then James realized he need to charge his ipod for a bit, so by the time we got to the gym, we had time for only a quick 5k.  After that, we had to get ready for…

Brunch with Maggie!  Maggie was one of my best friends/sorority sisters AND she is going to be a reader/honorary bridesmaid in my wedding.  I was so excited to see her!  Unfortunately, I was so excited that I completely forgot to take my camera out of my purse

But at least I can recap the restaurant.  James and I picked Cafe Hollander, which is part of the same company of our favorite brunch place, Trocadero.

We got to sit outside on this patio

(Source)

We had been to Cafe Hollander for dinner, but never brunch.  It had a very extensive menu, and everyone was happy with their meals (service slacked a little, but it’s ok, we were in good company, so it was fine).

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After brunch (which wasn’t long enough), I headed to Trader Joe’s to pick up some goodies for my Foodie Pen Pal, as well as a few treats for James and I.

For us, I got some random things, but my favorite were these two butters — cocoa almond and cookie butter.

Are you kidding me?  These are both so good!  I wanted to use the cocoa almond immediately, so I came up with these cookies.

Flourless oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

These cookies were a huge hit (recipe below)!  And by that, I mean James and I loved them.  My mom also said they sounded good, so I’ll consider that a good review as well

I also got a couple wasabi treats.  I love wasabi and am a big fan of wasabi roasted seaweed, so I got some of that.

I also got some wasabi peas.  These were new to me, but just as I suspected, I loved them.  I stocked up on some of my favorite local beer as well — Milwaukee Ale House’s Louie’s Demise.

Because I was in the mood to be very productive on the food front, I also made quesadillas for dinner.  I stuffed mine with chicken, tomatoes, spinach, and cheese.

Yummy dinner

While I was making the quesadillas, I also marinated a diced chicken breast in this balsamic marinade from Wild Tree.

I then sautéed the chicken in the marinade, and I made a couple hard boiled eggs.  I added the chicken and eggs to spring greens and added walnuts, blue cheese, and a little balsamic vinegar and there  you have it — lunch!

I made this salad for both James and I, and I was super happy with how it tasted today.

Now on to those cookies.  Trust me, these cookies may be healthier than normal, but they were so good and definitely cured my sweet tooth after lunch.

Flourless Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/2 cups of oats

2 T. Honey

2 T. Applesauce

1 T vanilla

2 T cocoa almond butter (or any chocolate peanut butter mix OR nutella )

1 egg

1/3 cup of crushed pretzels

1/3 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips

Directions:   Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.

then spoon into a muffin tin or onto a cookie sheet.

Bake for 15-17 minutes (my oven is terrible, so it took 17 minutes for me).  Enjoy!  Makes 12 cookies.

I still have all the ingredients, so I think another batch of these is in order since we are down to three already…

Hope everyone has a lovely evening!!